Apparatus for making clear can-ice.



J. E. SIMON.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING CLEAR GANIIUE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 27, 1911.

1,012,108. Patented De0.19,1911.

. UN T D. j s rarns ironu E. 's m-olvj or IibUISVILL'Ex,KENTUEKY,

Application and June 27; 1911, Ser ia1lto; 35, 58 4.

' To all whom it may concern;

zen of the United States, residing at Louis- Villtain the county ofJefferson and State of .5 Kentucky, have invented an Improvement inApparatus for Making Clear Can-Ice, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to the-manufacture of ice in cans and is animprovement on theapparatus-for which I obtained Letters Pat-' entof theUnited States,-No. (314,773, dated November 22nd, 1898. As will. be seenby reference to said patent, air-'was injected into the water in' thecan which was being frozen, through the instrumentality of a' flexibletube, terminating in a straight, rigid weighttube It has been -foundthat the flexible tube of said patent permits the a weight-tube to moveabout and swing in the water, on.account of the air issuingtherefromwith a certain'amount of force. \Vhile' thus moving or swinging, afterthe walls of "the ice haveattained considerable thickness and theremaining pocket, in the middle, which still contains water, has been.reduced in ,size, the weight-tube sometimes comes into contact with theice which forms the walls of the pocket and sticks and becomes firmlyembedded in the ice, so that it cannot be removed without severing theblock'of ice. Consequently tubes have: isomet'imes necessarily been leftin the ice andl'lost to the 'nianufacturer and have been detrimental tothe appearance of theresulting ice block.

i One of the objects of the present improvement is to obviate thedilliculties just mentioned.

Other objects are, to thoroughly agitate the water while in process offreezing; to

agitate the water, by meansxof air injected therein, near the bottom ofthe can; to inject the air at the center of the lower part of thecan bymeans of a tube; to remove the air tube easily from the ice, and thuspermit it to be frozen in; and to produce a SOlld,

clear block of. ice from plain water which has not been distilled orboiled, and save fueL- j I The manufacture of can-ice, from waterderived from the ordinary sources of supply, t such as springs, wells,rivers, and reservoirs has generally resulted in an unsatisfactoryproduct, because there 'are usually mineral, organic and gaseousimpurities m such water. These become firmly locked in the Specif.catio'n of Letters Patent." Patnted D 30, 19, 1911 V I l ieni-braceof 'the'water crystals at; Be it known that-I, JOHN E. SIMON, a cit1-'p'roces's of freezing, andwhn liberated at thetiinefthe iceis used maybeobjectionable or injurio'us'to health. The airand" other gaseous matterin'the water being frozen is crystallized out in the form of minutglobules-which are locked in the embrace of the crystals, and byreflection and retiree tionof the light-which mayo-pass through the iceblock, impart objectionable whiteness to theice.-' Artificial ice isthereforeen eral ly made from distilled water, but.,th1s isexpensive'and'not always free from volatile" v 1m purities which may have passedover 'in' 'the' process of distillation. .Furthermor, 70. idistilled\vter, "when cold, readilyabsorbs' circunmmb ent gases, suc'lrasammonia, so tl'iatgthemiddle of the block may contiiii'un desirableQualities from this cause' It" has been found that these objectionablefeatures .are altogethereliminated byjconstantly agitating the waterduring theprocess of ffiGGZ'.

ing and carrying the gaseous ingredients. away by means of a vehiclesuch asr'air, kept constantly liowing'through the water. It was alsofound that if the water was coi1- stantly agitated,- m ineral'ai 1dorganic impurities were crowded out by crystallizz'tt-ion, andconstantly forced toward the middle of the can while the'gase'o'usimpurities were car- 'ried oil? by the air which was-keptcon-J stant'lyflowing through the water. A furtherobje'ctis to accomplish thesedesirable-results. 2 j l The objects mentioned have-been attained bymeans of the apparatus illustrated in the accompanying drawings inwhich-'- Figure l-is a vertical sectional -view;.'Fig. 2, a verticalsectionalriew, showing the air tube embedded in' the ice and released;Fig. -3, a top plan view; Fig. .4 a vertical sectional view of the' airtube arranged for heating by electricitv: Fig. 5, a vertical-sectionalvfview of the air taibe, anda steam tube applied thercto: and, Fig. is across-section lar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.rigid metaltube, 1, is suspended in the ,middle of an ice can, 2, bymeans of a bar,

t le-which rests upon the topof opposite sides ofthe ice can.' The bar 3is preferably a wooden board of approximately of an inch in thicknessand 2 inches wide. A hole,

PATEMY QFFIGE M.04:.M-w-n'1..

the size of the outside diameter of tube 1,

is bored through. the middlelof'bar 3, perpendicular toits widest plane,The tube 1" 1sv inserted in this hole with a snug fit, so'

that the tube is rigid in the bar. 'A collar,

d, secured on the upper end of tube 1,; which forms a stop for the tube,to prevent its passing through bar 3; It will be understood that by thismeans tube 1 is kept in constant vertical alinemnt in the middle ofv thecan. An air-line is provided by a pipe,

' 5', embedded in a tank partition, 6, which is provided with nipples,6%, 'over which are placed flexible tubes,j. 7,' adapted to conduct airfrom pipe 5 to the upper .end of tube 1. 'The flexible tube 7 -and thef'uppe'r end of tube 1- are so arranged that they come below and donptfinterfere with the'tank-covers,

-8, which ,-are customarily placed over the cans and which 'form'thefloor of the tank,

By these instrumentalities 'air from pipe 5 is.

injected into. the water, 9, in can 2, nearthe b'ottom ,-of the can, sothatit passes-upward \through the water in theformofbubbles, as-

shown in Fig. 1. As the ice'forms on the walls offcan 2 the wallsoftheiice block,be-. come thicker, and a pocket,

It will be'unde1 'stood that the rigidtube 1 cann tF ibrate so as tocome into contact with thewalls of the pocket 10, and therefore the air.willflow fromthe tube. until the ice is frozen up-to the-end of thetube.

' When the pocket 10 contains only about two quarts of water, it isfound that this water;

is heavily loaded withlimp'urities and ,usuj; ally quite turbid. Ifthe'freezing operation were continued these ,impurities' would no longerbe crystallized out and there would be formed an objectionable core inthe block-of ice. Th it ater in pocket 10 is, therefore,- pumped out bymeans ofv a flattened tube, (not shown in the drawings), and the pocketmay be filled with distilled water, which. '45

containsno air, and the freezing conipleted.

, When the ice has .formedabout the. lowerend of tube 1 itbecomes'firmly. embedded inthe ice. The air tubel isthfereforesoconstructed that it may be heated while embedded in the ice, so that theice immediately in .contact with the tube is melted, forming a thin-filmof water,.a s shown at 11, (Fig. 2), The tubel may then be.-eas1ly'with,- drawn from the ice. The o enmg-l ft by the tube is then filledwith-water, whlclf 'is quickly fr'ozen resulting-ina solidblock I ofclear, pure ce.

To provide for the heating iif tube 1,-while still in the can embeddedm' -ithe ice;the-'tube is constructed as more particularly illus{ tratedin Figs. 4 and 5.

The modification oftube 1 shownin'Fig.

4.- is adapted for heatingby meafnsof elec-.

tricity, and to this end theair tubecom-I prises an inner air tubeproper, '12,-fand an r 10, (Fig. 1) is" formed in the middle of theblock.

outer tube, 13. The. tube 12 is soldered or otherwise secured to thetube 13 at its lower end, and somewhat contracted at 14, so as to formanozzle, by which the air is forcibly projected downward" into the waterand ag'itates it. The lower'end of tube 13 is entering the space betweenthe tubes;

Insulation, 15, is inserted between tubes 12 and 13.- A conductor, 16,is connected with tube 12 and a conductor, 17, with tube 'a' suitablesource. of electric .current. The tube 13 is; formed of such thinnessand material that it has sufiicient resistance to the current to becomesuitabl heated, while the tube .12 is made; of such odyand material.that it conducts the current-freely. It will thus be seen that when itis desiredlto remove the tube. 1 from the ioe,-an electric circuit iscompleted through the tube, and the 'tom' of" tube 1 and steam, from asuitable source, not shown .in the drawings, is in jected into, theouter tube -13 (Figs. 2 and 5). ilnthe latter case it-is preferred tomake good conductor-of. heat. 1

The Wall of tube 1 is provided with one or more orifices, 19', to allowair to issue from tube 12 into the .water 9. These orifices pro- "videfor the agitation of the water after the nozzle at the lower end of thetubehas been ;from. ;By this means the pocket 10, after andia. clear,pure block of ice maybe attained without any distilled water.

:of tin plate or sheet steel, of such thinness as to be heated by =a'nelectric current.- --In the brine tanki I have preferred to filter anddry the air which-is used through tube 12, because such fair, beingdeprive'd} ofimpuri'ties is not liable and block up the nozzle 14,- asmoistair is. Before removing tube'=1'from'-the ice, tube 1' fromthe-ice, tube 18- is inserted in tube 1, so that its lowenend nearlyreaches the botthe outer tube 13 of tube 1 of brass or otherclosed, sothat water is prevented from a 13, at the upper end of the tubes andwith outer tube 13 becomes sufiiciently heated to frozen in and the airceases to-flow-there'--- pumping out, may be filled with plain water Ialso contemplate using a single tube 'eX- tending to and. makingelectrical contact with the-bottom of can 2. This tube is made;

this case only-on pole need be'applied to the tube, the currentpassingfinto the can and,

to leave water' dfcondensationin the tube Itwill be appreciated that bythe method carried out with this apparatus, the water of which the iceis made need not be distilled and therefore a great saving is effected,and yet as pure and as clear ice is formed as that made from distilledwater; in fact, distilled Water frequently absorbs and carries insolution gaseous impurities which would be entirely removed by theapparatus described, and whichare found in the ice made from. such waterin ordinary practice.

Having thus described my invention, so

that any one skilled in the art pertaining thereto, may construct anduse it, I claim- 1. In apparatus for making clear ice in cans, a tubefor conveying air downward through the water in a can suspended in thethe tube,

215111 apparatus for making clear can ice, a tube suspended in an icecan provided with a compartment for conveying a fluid for agitating thewater to be frozen and a compartment for means for heating the tube.

i JOHN E. SIMON. Witnesses: THOS. A SI-IELLEY,

ABRAHAM KNoBEL.

can and providedwith means for heating

